Roundup: Backloading the spending with good reason

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Yesterday was the big day, and the Defence Policy Review was released, which by all accounts was a fairly comprehensive look at what the vision of the Forces should be for the next twenty years, complete with an extra $62 billion in defence spending over those two decades, plus more cyber warfare and drones, more ships, and more fighters along the way. The hitch? That most of that spending won’t start rolling out until after the next election, which could be a problem. The other hitch? That the way these things works means that it couldn’t actually start rolling out until then anyway owing to the way that these things work, and yes, the Liberals meticulously costed their plans with five different accounting firms looking over the numbers and ensuring that both cash and accrual accounting methodologies were included. (One defence analyst did note that this funding means that existing commitments that were made but not funded are actually being accounted for and funded under this new model). These accounting considerations are worth noting, and economist Kevin Milligan explains:

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872508516132462593

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872509412862066688

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872510368379097088

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872511237401096192

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872512007248920576

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872512983905165312

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872575096560304132

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872576254284775424

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/872576782850965504

Meanwhile, John Geddes casts a critical eye at the promises for future spending, while former Navy commander Ken Hansen offers his insider’s perspective on the document and its contents. Stephen Saideman takes a higher-level perspective including looking at whether the consultation process leading up to the report was followed (and it seems to be the case).

Good reads:

  • It looks like Trudeau soft-pedalled the conversation about the abuses of Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi.
  • Madeleine Meilleur removed herself from the running for Languages Commissioner, no doubt in large part because she failed to convince the Senate she was qualified.
  • The Conservatives are opting to play crass politics over bureaucratic cautions not to make a sex offender registry public because of (legitimate) vigilantism concerns.
  • The NDP are planning on using their last Supply Day of the session to push a nuclear weapons treaty that the government asserts is empty symbolism.
  • Here’s a closer look at the justice bill tabled this week that will clarify sexual assault law in this country (on top of dealing with “zombie laws”).
  • There are concerns that the aid package for the softwood lumber industry will make things worse with American complaints.
  • Some senators are looking to split out the Infrastructure Bank provisions from the budget bill in order to give it more scrutiny.
  • Here’s a closer look at the labour dispute with the Parliamentary Protective Services, and their protests by way of jeans and ballcaps.
  • The Conservatives are now closing ranks and insisting there are no concerns about the ballots and Scheer’s election.
  • A former Conservative staffer offers some advice to Scheer about how to broaden his party’s appeal with minorities.
  • Niki Ashton discusses pregnancy while on the leadership campaign trail.
  • The Bloc is already rising up against their new leader after her new chief of staff tried to discredit one of their MPs in the media.
  • Here’s a look at Barack Obama’s speech to the Montreal Board of Trade on Tuesday night.
  • Andrew Coyne notes the radicalism of Chrystia Freeland’s speech and the break from America that it contains.
  • Terry Glavin offers a corrective to Freeland saying that America is abandoning world leadership under Trump, and notes it began under Obama.
  • David Reevely makes the compelling case that Trudeau should have let Madeleine Meilleur apply to be a senator rather than Language Commissioner.
  • Paul Wells has a strange conversation with Quebec’s Minister for Canadian Relations about the province’s planned constitutional “discussions.”

Odds and ends:

The BC legislature is set to return June 22nd, for the drama of the Speaker election, Throne Speech and confidence vote.